


Left Turns Off Familiar Streets

by scribbledmargins



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Friends to Lovers, Growing Up, M/M, Miscommunication, Road Trips, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 04:04:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15186350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribbledmargins/pseuds/scribbledmargins
Summary: For that whole last year in Windsor they’d talked about it. Idle daydreams about their big someday summer road trip; just another thing on the long list of sketched out plans for all the things they’d do when they were all grown up and killing it in the big leagues. Back then it had felt like they’d have so much time. Like they’d always be that close, like they would never drift apart due to time and geography.After their seasons are done Taylor and Adam drive the last of Adam's stuff from New Jersey to Anaheim





	Left Turns Off Familiar Streets

**Author's Note:**

> originally this was intended as part of the pucking rare challenge, but the length got away from me and I didn't get the whole thing done in time so I'm posting it separately as a WIP. The prompt was "Taylor and Adam drive Adam's shit from Jersey to Anaheim, and some feelings come out."

 

**May 22nd, 2009- Rimouski Quebec**  

It’s late; probably past curfew, but Taylor can’t bring himself to care all that much about making it back to his own room yet, especially not when he knows that most of the team is still down in Andrew’s room, celebrating. Thats where he’d been too, until Adam had caught his eye and slipped out and Taylor, helpless as always, had followed him back to his room. 

A familiar episode of Chappelle’s Show is playing on TNC, but neither of them are paying it much attention. Instead they’re laying side by side on Adam’s bed, very carefully not touching, staring at the ceiling, and speaking more quietly than is really necessary in an empty room. 

 

“I bet you stay up next season.” 

“Oh sure, everyone knows all it takes to earn an NHL roster spot is an important OT goal.” 

“ _Playoffs saving_ OT goal, Henny. On top of a really awesome season. I’m just saying, if I were you I’d be looking at New Jersey real estate.” 

Adam laughs. “ Yeah, okay. I’ll call my agent right now ‘Taylor Hall says I should look for a place to live in Jersey, can you help with that?’” 

Taylor kicks at him, half-heartedly. Takes a deep breath, keeps on staring at the ceiling. “I’d miss you, if you were in Jersey. And not just because you score baller OT goals.” 

He can feel Adam shifting on the bed, rolling over onto his side, but not coming any closer. 

“Yeah?” He asks, softly. 

Taylor dares to look at him now, too tired to be anything but honest. 

“Yeah.” 

Adam smiles. “You could always come visit me.”

“In New Jersey? Isn’t that like. Pretty far away form Windsor?”

“I dunno, let me check.” 

He reaches into his pocket and Taylor can’t help but roll his eyes. Adam’s been taking any and every opportunity to show off how much shit he can do with his brand new iPhone. It is, Taylor has to admit, pretty cool. On the bus earlier, an argument about the lyrics of Weezy’s Lollipop Remix had broken out and Adam had pulled up the official lyrics and settled the argument in about two minutes flat. 

He flips over onto his stomach and Taylor curls closer. If he turns his head at an awkward angle he can see the screen. A map of the United States is open and a banner down at the bottom says directions are loading. 

They finally display and—

“Oh.” Adam frowns. 

Nearly ten hours in a car. Taylor tries to bite down on his disappointment. 

“Told you.” 

Adam pokes him in the side and leaves his hand where it falls to the bed, fingers extended just slightly and brushing against Taylor’s stomach. 

“We could road trip it. If I got the call. Might need some help getting all my shit over there.” 

“Yeah.” Taylor agrees. He knows they won’t but it’s fun to pretend for a minute that they could. “That would be fun.” 

“We should take a road trip anyway. Maybe somewhere cooler than New Jersey.” 

“California might be fun. Too bad you didn’t get drafted there, huh? Sun and sand all year long.” 

Adam grins. “ _Yes_. Let’s road trip to California! Route 66 ba _by_.”

The enthusiasm is catching. Taylor grins back. “That _would_ be pretty awesome. Once we’re making the big bucks we should totally take a summer road trip to California.” 

“But first you have to help me drive my shit to New Jersey.” 

“Yeah, whatever. You gonna remember us little people next year when you’re kicking ass and hanging out with Marty Brodeur?” 

Adam’s smile softens around the edges and Taylor’s heart snags on it, like always. 

 

**November 18, 2017—Newark New Jersey**

 

It’s late; definitely past hotel curfew for a team that has to play the second half of a back-to-back tomorrow, but Adam has either gotten permission to sleep at the house he still owns, or he’s just decided he doesn’t give a fuck. Taylor selfishly wants it to be the second, wants Adam not to care about respecting team rules for any team that isn’t _theirs,_ but realistically it’s option one.  

Whatever the reason, the outcome is the same. Adam is in New Jersey, just for the night, so Taylor’s here too, standing in Adam’s kitchen and helping him decide which dishes he wants to keep.

They’ve been working in mostly comfortable silence for a while when Adam suddenly starts laughing. 

“Hey do you remember how we used to talk about taking a road trip to California?” 

Adam might as well have stabbed him with the knife he’s holding, for how sharp the memory cuts. 

For that whole last year in Windsor they’d talked about it. Idle daydreams about their big someday summer road trip; just another thing on the long list of sketched out plans for all the things they’d do when they were all grown up and killing it in the big leagues. Back then it had felt like they’d have so much time. Like they’d always be that close, like they would never drift apart due to time and geography. But they’d run out of time in Windsor and they’d run out of time again in Jersey, a whole year wasted by Taylor’s naive assumption that Adam was a fixed constant, that they’d have years to work their way back to what they’d almost had when they were kids living each other’s pockets. 

Of all people, Taylor should have known that no one is ever untouchable. 

 

He forces a chuckle. “Yeah, I remember. We were pretty full of it, eh?” 

“I think we should do it.” 

He looks up, ready to make a joke but the way Adam is staring back stops him cold. 

“Are you serious?” 

“Yeah. I am. When the season is over, we should do it. I’ll have to come back here anyway, go through the rest of my shit when I have more time.” 

“I thought you had people coming to move everything over the All-Star break?”

Adam shrugs. “I do. But a few days isn’t enough to go through everything. I’m getting the important stuff now but I was always going to come back later and go through the rest. You could help me drive it out.” 

He doesn’t want to drive Henny’s stuff anywhere. He wants it to stay right here and he wants Adam to stay with it. But that isn’t exactly an option. 

“C’mon Taylor, I want to do this with you. Please.” 

Adam’s voice is gentle, his face open, and Taylor’s heart constricts in his chest. The giant kitchen they’re in suddenly feels too small, thick with the kind of tension they’d lived in when they were kids; the kind he’d been starting to get used to again, before Adam left.

Taylor tries to ignore how fast his heart has started beating. “I don’t know Henny, I plan on playing all the way to June, might not have that kind of time.” 

Adam laughs. The tension breaks. 

“Uh, I plan on playing until June too, so…” 

“You sure it won’t be too awkward after I beat you in the finals?” 

Adam is still laughing. “Oh buddy, I’m gonna be the one lifting the cup, so if you think _you_ can handle it, I’m sure it’ll be fine.” 

“Yeah, we’ll see.” 

“So…” Adam asks, suddenly unable to look away from the plate in his hand, “Is that a yes?”

“Yeah, okay. Let’s take a road trip.”

 

**April 21st, 2018—Tampa Bay Florida**

  

It’s late; past when curfew would’ve been, if they had anything coming up besides a real downer of a plane ride. If they’d won and kept their playoff dream alive for one more game.  

Some of the guys are in the hotel bar, he knows, commiserating and avoiding the happy Tampa fans who are definitely flooding the city bars. Taylor could have joined them, probably still could, but he can’t bring himself to get off the bed. He’d followed the rookies back to Nico and Jesper’s room, made sure they were as okay as they could be, and then come back to his room and collapsed without even turning on the tv or taking off his shoes. 

His phone buzzes in his hand. He checked it on the bus back to the hotel, but he hasn’t looked since. 

He glances down at it, and on top of the many notifications that have piled up since he got off the bus, there’s a text from Adam. Adam is one of maybe 5 people not on his team that he can imagine talking to at all right now, so he slides it open, bypassing all the other messages.

At the top of the screen there’s still their exchange from few days ago (‘U played GREAT henny FUCK the sharks’ and, ‘thanks man. Kick some ass for me in tb, I’m pulling for ya.’), then under that a message from earlier that he’s already seen, timestamped at almost the moment the game had ended (‘I’m sorry, I know it sucks. So proud of you tho’), and Taylor’s responding ‘thx’ which was all he’d been able to muster, and more than most people had gotten in response, and finally, at the bottom of his screen there’s a new text, and this one isn’t about the game or the playoffs or even hockey at all. 

‘Road trip?’ 

 

Taylor smiles.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Title is from Drive by Ben Harper
> 
> I'm also on [tumblr](https://cricketloblaw.tumblr.com/)


End file.
